page_title: Soap Box Derby
section_title: 1973 scandal
hierarchical_section_title: Soap Box Derby / Scandals / 1973 scandal
context_page_description: The Soap Box Derby is a youth soapbox car racing program which has been run in the United States since 1933. World Championship finals are held each July at Derby Downs in Akron, Ohio. Cars competing in this and related events are unpowered, relying completely upon gravity to move.
context_section_description: In 1973, 14-year-old Jimmy Gronen of Boulder, Colorado was stripped of his title two days after winning the national race.  Suspicions were running high even before the finals, and Gronen was actually booed by many spectators.
  The unusual dimensions of Gronen's margins of victory and heat times tipped off derby officials to illegal circumstances surrounding Gronen's racer. Subsequent X-ray examination of his car revealed an electromagnet in the nose.  When activated at the starting line, the electromagnet pulled the car forward by attracting it to the steel paddle used to start the race. Gronen activated the electromagnet by leaning his helmet against the backrest of his seat, which activated its power source.  This became very evident as Gronen's heat times progressively slowed down as the race wore on, because the electromagnet lost strength each time it was activated. Usually, heat times get faster each time a racer completes a heat. Videotape of the race also showed a suspiciously sudden lead for Gronen just a few feet after each heat began. The margin of victory for a race heat is normally no more than 1 to 3 feet (0.30 to 0.91 m). Gronen's early heat victories were in the 20 to 30 feet (6.1 to 9.1 m) range. (Aluminum insulator plates were added to the starting ramps in 1974 to render an electromagnetic system useless.) 
  Midway through the 1973 race, Derby officials also replaced Gronen's wheels after chemicals were found to be applied to the wheels' rubber. The chemicals caused the tire rubber to swell, which reduced the rolling resistance of the tire.
  In the final heat, Gronen finished narrowly ahead of Bret Yarborough.  Within two days, Yarborough was declared the 1973 champion.
  Gronen's uncle and legal guardian at the time, wealthy engineer Robert Lange, was indicted for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and paid a $2,000 settlement.
  Lange's son and Jimmy Gronen's cousin Bob Lange Jr., had won the previous 1972 Derby using a car considered indistinguishable from the vehicle used by Gronen.
caption: 1973 Boulder, Colorado Disqualified Racer
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